It's Back

I touched on Spam a while back but it seems the Hormel folks and Spam specifically, are benefiting from the wonderful Bush economy now coming into its full bloom. According to the New York Times: Spam Turns Serious and Hormel Turns Out More

Spam plant employees are working around the clock just to keep up with demand.

The article notes that some other products are benefiting from the bad economy including pancake mix, instant potatoes, vitamins, beer, rice, beans, mac and cheese, Jell-O, Kool-Aid, and Velveeta. At least consumers have the right idea with the rice and beans but the other stuff in the list is not so hot.

Here's something else from the article:

And sales are still growing, if not booming, for Velveeta, a Kraft product that
bears the same passing resemblance to cheese as Spam bears to ham.

I hate to admit it but Velveeta does make a pretty good grilled cheese sandwich not to mention a traditional Southern Mac andCheese. We are talking "White Trash Cooking" here which is a recognized culinary tradition but you go with the cheese you can afford. During some hard times growing up, my family got the giant chunks of Velveeta from the USDA along with the other staples such as peanut butter, rice, etc. That may be why some of us from that generation still have a warm place in our hearts for things like Velveeta even whilst knowing it is, on balance, not really good food.